In other random news

I love late in the season flowers in general, and roses specifically. I moved this rosebush that has been unhappy for years (in the far away corner of the vegetable garden) to the opposite side of the front door from the crazy happy rosebush, hoping some of the happy vibes (and frequent coffee grounds) would revive it. It has done much better this year than any other time in all the years since I planted it.

Today there are 6 buds and one fully bloomed rose on it. Beautiful!! Nothing quite so great as flowers blooming right when everything else seems to be winding down for the season.

A Weekend at the Homestead

It has been awhile since I completely bored my reader (I know there's only one of you out there ;) with the mundane details of my life. And by mundane, I mean REALLY mundane. But here's how it is... I had a rough week at work, way too much work, changes in the works, but still just means even more work for me. I didn't accomplish anything I set out to accomplish and I just need some small success in my life. This weekend is my first real weekend at home and without set plans (or applesauce) in 3 months. 3 MONTHS!!! First REAL Saturday at home. Imagine how many projects and how much house cleaning I desperately want to do... and it is just one short little weekend... So I'm asking all of you (my one reader) to hold me accountable for a productive weekend at home.

Here's the problem: I am fried. Left work after a mere 8 hours to race home, find a stool sample, and take an itching miserable Suzie to the vet... sigh... where I spent half of my week's pay and left with two new drugs (steriods and antibiotics), a new eyedrop, and a bag of fricking expensive "prescription" hypo allergetic dog food. Sigh.

I really shouldn't say this or record this anywhere, but it is a darn good thing Suzie (the sweetest dog on the planet) is the one with all the expensive health woes. Maggie just plain wouldn't survive. Not only is she bitchy, she is the worst behaved dog at the vet. They can't actually do anything with her and have to hold her down with several technicians just to do her every-three-years rabies shot - much less any attempt at a blood draw, checking the eyes and ears, palpating the stomach... yeah, it isn't pretty. So, although I do hate spending a fortune at the vet, Suzie is worth it and at least behaves her sweet self there, for the most part, though even Suzie doesn't sit still for the blood draw.

But I digress... Right. Back on task. The vet visit is done. I am hungry and don't have energy to cook. I should attack the cluttered and unorganized laundry room and basement family room and give them a much needed clean, purge, organize. I'd love to do that tonight so I can focus tomorrow on that final mowing, yard clean up, and organizing the shed so I can fit all the patio stuff in there and some basics like cleaning floors and bathrooms. Hmmm.

Wish me luck... and stay tuned... it is quite likely I will bore you with my lack of progress regularly over the next 48 hours...

Quick Takes

I am trying to get in the habit of being in touch again... with my friends, my blog, my life. Here's my lame attempt... my very own Quick Takes (even if it isn't Friday yet).

1. Work is busy and getting busier. I'm completely swamped, underwater, overwhelmed...and yet thankful to be busy. Thankful to be gainfully employed. Thankful to like the guys I work with. Thankful that in spite of the stress, I like our company, I like what we do, and dang the guys in the office are funny people. What a blessing! Balance continues to be elusive, but we're making some small steps in the right direction, and for today, I choose to be thankful (remind me of that tomorrow, okay?).

2. It is fall. There are a lot of great things about fall that I like every year but I am not ready for fall. I am in denial that we're not still somewhere mid-August, when I feel like my life seriously derailed...and suddenly I am beginning to wake up and realize it is mid-October. Ahhh.

3. The big dog ate the bathroom garbage again today. Just picture this, she lives with a bunch of women... okay nevermind, stop picturing that. Anyway, this is now the second time the bathroom garbage has been raided. All these years of fighting with her about stealing food from the counters and she hasn't been surfing the counters at all but then suddenly her taste changes... and it is... ewwwwwwwwwwwwww. Dogs are gross, that's my story and I'm sticking to it. The rest of you close the bathroom door to keep toddlers out of the toilet- I now need to learn to close the bathroom door to keep the dog from eating ... um... unmentionable disgustingness. Thank you Maggie. Life is never dull with you around.

4. I got to have dinner with some of my favorite people last night. As always, I am reminded that I am so incredibly blessed to have such terrific friends. A few weeks back, a good friend of my parents asked me if I was okay, if I had some good support in this difficult season. I was almost taken back by the question. Me?? Oh I'm good, I've got my friends, my people. Once again, just realizing how blessed I am to have so many faithful, supportive, wonderful people in my life. God is so good to me!!

5. This past weekend I applesauced with two different crowds. So much fun. Applesaucing is one of my favorite canning ventures because it is cool enough and you aren't sweating like a pig (peach season is fun but hot) and the smell of fall and leaves and apples permeates the air... mmmmm.... Anyway, it was delightful. I'm stocked up on applesauce for the next year, got some great quality time in with friends and family alike, and have a big bag of apples left to turn into pies or other such appley desserts. Mmmm. Apple season is one of my favorite things about fall.

6. My fall wedding is a week and half away. All the details are coming together as far as I can tell. I now have a dress, shawls on the way, shoes, and time off work. It is really happening. I am soooo happy for my friend who is getting married and looking forward to an eventful, wedding-ful weekend, celebrating God's faithfulness to my good friend and spending the weekend with some delightful new friends too. What a life I live :)

7. I need to get back to monthly goals for my life, something to actually accomplish one month at a time... but October has been too nuts to actually decide on a goal. Maybe November... Stay tuned on that. My goal for November is to have goals again. We'll see if I can pull that off.

Another new girlie

Clearly I am way behind on my blogging when I haven't yet announced my newest niece!! Mary Grace Sophia was born this past Wednesday, October 12th to my sister and her family out in Washington State. Way too far away for this aunt's liking!! I think the big brothers and sister are already smitten, and so am I.


Mary Grace brings the niece/nephew count up to an even 10. 5 girls, 5 boys. I am so blessed. Welcome to the family sweet girlie. I can't wait to meet you!!!!

Munchkin Time (aka Teaching Important Life Skills)

Saturday morning three of my favorite kids arrived bright and early bearing some beautiful fall mums, donuts for breakfast, cheerful smiles, and overnight bags. There's a recipe for a good weekend.

One of our projects was to set up the guest room. Since Elana moved out, it's just a mostly empty room with curtains that don't match. Which simply won't do. The blue floral curtains looked great when the walls were light blue, but the bright green doesn't work with them. Sigh. Enter Meijer clearance shelf. There they were, chocolate brown curtains marked down to $10 each and then an additional 25% off. Perfect. So I bought three panels (two for the windows, 1 for the closet). I had also gotten a daybed frame off craigslist a few weeks ago to house the mattress that's been on the floor in there for quite some time. So this morning Jane and Lucy and I put the guest bedroom together (or as Jane calls it "our new room"). We put the bed frame together, added the mattress, took down the old curtains and put up the new ones. And there are now about 30 stuffed animals living in the dresser. Jane was a little concerned though, "Aunt Reenie, the closet is still empty. We have to put something in there!" She was also very proud of herself for arranging her teddy bear to sit in the corner of her new room. Perfect.

In addition, Lucy learned what I deem to be an Important Life Skill. Under my careful tutelage, she removed the old broken electrical plate cover and installed the new one. She was clearly digging the project and stood back to admire her handiwork. "That looks SO much better." I did tell her that no matter where she goes and what she does in life, it is always important to know how to replace switch plates. There we go, teach niece important life skill, check!

Sunday got even more exciting. Two more nephews arrived to join in the fun. And Elijah from next door came for pretty much the whole afternoon. I even managed to get a few things done while everyone was playing, well a few things beyond enjoying the beautiful sunny warm weekend and the very entertaining company.

Suzie got a TON of love all weekend. She's horribly itchy again (after a couple weeks of fooling me into thinking things were improving). Every few minutes one of the kids would scritch scratch her and call excitedly "Look, I got her leg is going" as her leg would twitch and try to scratch. It's a great game and nearly qualifies as yet another Important Life Skill-- but not quite (especially when every inch of this dog is an itchy mess right now). By the end of tonight, Suze was tired and ready for some space. Being followed and loved every minute of a weekend does get a little exhausting, even for a dog as needy as the Suze.

Maggie, in her own right, earned points this weekend. She now lets Geno order her around (some anyway), will take treats gently out of the kids hands without growling, played several rounds of the "down stay treat" trick with Jane, and was generally okay with the kids all weekend. Look at Maggie finally acquiring some Important Life Skills. We barely had to shut her in the basement (except for today, because let's be honest, even with a good weekend going, 6 small (and very unpredictable) kids would have blown that out of the water).

Overheard:
Lucy: Geno, here's something to chop people's heads off with.
Geno: Oh thanks Lucy!

Jane: Shiny has a lovely big house. Shiny is a very lucky dinosaur.

Lucy, what is that?
It's a decoration.
Lucy, battles don't have decorations.
Geno, it's a Castle not a Battle.
The battle is going to happen at the castle. Argh.

Jane: "Can I be done? ... Wait (correcting herself), it's May. May I be done?"
Lucy: "It's not May, it's OCTOBER! heh heh heh"
We've got another punster on our hands. Those Cous genes run strong. :)

Here's my list of accomplishments -- not up to my usual weekend standard, but not bad considering (and yes, this list is for me not you-- seriously, why are you still reading? get a life already):
scoop & mow backyard
pick stuff from garden
bake bread
feed kids all 3 meals (clean up after all three meals) each day
oven roast tomatoes (some for dinner, 1 bag for the freezer)
sweep the entire first floor
clear roadtrip crap from dining room table
put an extra dinner in the freezer for later
clean the downstairs bathroom
bathe the dog
set up the guest room (mentioned above)
read a lot of short stories
Sam's club run
clean up toys, books and crayons (numerous times)
wash (but not fold) two loads of laundry
water the house plants
cut the girls hair
soak in the gorgeous weather

The grass is greener...

I rarely post links to other blogs here, but I stumbled across this post this morning and wanted to share it.

I love the living intentionally theme, taking responsibility for our actions and the consequences, the emphasis on not being victims of circumstance but of taking what we have and living life to the fullest right there. Mmmm.

Thought it was worth passing on.